Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-02-25
THE BABY.
A Series OF Letters from Marion Har.
land to Those Who Are the Mothers
of Immortal Beings.
The Active Business OF Motherhood Give
Occupation to the Hands, Heart and
Head OF Any Ono Woman.
BY MARION HARLAN.
Copyrighted, 1887, by the author
Our Baby.

confound emu; and experience. This
world is dear and bonny home, thanks
to the dear Lord who made it so very
good that his creatures in all ages and Of
all ages have not been able to spoil it. or
our Queen Mother, Nature, it may be said
that as custom cannot stale her infinite
variety, neither can ingratitude chill her
| infinite kindness. Each sprinetime is 3
resurrection; each fruit season brings the
thrill of 9 pleasant surprise; each Christ
mastide stirs our souls as if the Birthday
/ of birthdays-the red heart all athrob
with living fires set IN the mid breast of
white Winter-were then celebrated for
| the frst time. Still, as when the morning
stars chanted the completion of the young
earth, all things leave the Fathers hand
| fair and new.
| Our baby, is, TO whatsoever home he
may come, the freshest, most exhaust
lessly interesting creation the angels ever
lowered to our level. "Ccme away"
said girl pulling at her friends sleeve.
! "You don't care to listen to that pair of
new mothers. Tney are only comparing
notes and asking advice about their lamb
lings. heard one say just now, 4 had
no idea un'il mine came that child was
suCn solemn responsibility | always
stop up my ears and run when they begin
that sort of cant" The other resisted :
"But do care to hear this, They are
discussing the reform-dress for infants
and-maybe you don't know that we have
baby-my sister-at our hOu-e That
makes all the difference in the world, YOU
see."
With tie tenancy of the cradle in sour
house" other topics beside the reform
dress start suddenly into prominence
We never pass child on the street with
out seeing it. The gutter-baby, pat-a-
caktng mud-pies on the curb-stone; the
patrician ba0y making round eyes at the
little Arab Though the carriage window !;
the sickly baby, the healthy baby, pretty
babies and homely babies lif such EXIST
all pun ct the check-string OF our hearts,
each reminding US in some way OF the
tiny bundle of warm unconsciousness at
home, Tapped in love and fed on kisses.
We loiter before windows which display
baby clothes; emulate the sweet nonsense
of Traddles and his dearest grip in Sc
lecting the toys we will buy for the boy
when ne begins TO take notice. When
caught lingering over school catalogues
we blush and laugh fOOlishly, and nobody
except his father and mother is privy to
the secret of the savings bank account
begun in his own name when he was a
| day old. Gan the difference in the
world?" Yes. and in the universe.
! Ours is always wonderful baby. l
confess to a sensation of Cnagrin when a
young mother does not confess this di-
rectly, or indirectly. In some one par
| ticular, if not in all, he resembles no other
child ever born, and surpasses the rest of
the infant creation.
Many years ago l witnessed en- illus
tration of this vicarious vanity that
shocked my girlish sense of fitness, but
which l recall now with reverence. a
neighbours child was as the old wives in
sisted, "msrked" by a snake on which
the mother trod in the garden one
day before it was born. The
recollection of the deformed baby lent
an awful fascination to "Elsie Werner"
when 1 read it twenty years afterward.
walked when she died at the age of six
Her skin was covered with scales, her
head was f4t, her eyes were narrow and
black. CHANGING to call at the house one
day, saw the poor little thing usually
screened from curious eyes-roll and
wiggle across the floor to the mothers
feet, and grasping her dress, laugh up in
her face. Such laugh! The cleft tcngue
shot out with hiss: the forehead re-
coded entirely under the low forelock; the
eyes gleameG-the whole effect was indie
scribably revolving. And the mother, e
handsome woman in her prime, caught up
the animate horror, covered her with
kisses and called her the dearest, lovli-
est rosebud ever made!"
Our BABY is always an "incomparablY-
sweet angel" the rose of the world. The
divine ingenuity that lays up against his
coming such store of mother-love does
not Over-estimate the prospective de-
mand upon the supply. The care of baby
takes more of mammals time. draws
more heavily upon her nerve power and
physical strength than all her other
duties combined. She is not her own
property by day or by night. There are
a. many anxious as happy thoughts Of
him. She is never quite easy when he is
out of her sight, never quiet when he is
present unless ne is asleep, and then
holds her breath to listen for his.
All this and so much more to the same
effect Is true that we declare without reser-
walton, that the active business of moth
erhood gives active occupation to the
hands, heart and head of any one woman.
She can no more escape the weight than
can her husband from the burden OF his
craft or profession. The one is to her
what the other is to him. This is the
kernel of our stalk " You, discouraged
mother, bewailing your pinioned
hands and stagnating mind, fret
ting for the liberty of toiiless
girlhocd, for the gala days that are no
more, ready to cry out upon marriage as
thrslidom and maternity as degradation
make the mistake of reversing the order
of duties. Your husband, with a juster
sense of values, resigns recreation whea
prudence bids him bide By the stuff, or
watch over investments; when he espies
chance to make money postpones TO a
more convenient season the merry
masking. His lidays are sandwiched
between so many weeks that he almost
forgets the flavor OF one before another
comes. Should he complain you would
call him faint hearted ana think him lazy.
Yet yours is the nobler and far more
important work. He makes money that !
perishes with his using (ald other peo-
ple's). You make men and women who |
live forever, and through all that forever |
bear the imprint you stamp upon them. |
he seeks fame that will be his during his |
lifetime. You are carving tablets for the |
never ending years. The sublime pstience |
OF him who"psinted for posterity" should |
be in you informed by more sangujne |
faith, wider and clearer outlook. Zone
of US can, if only for her own
sake, afford to slur over 8one of
the duties that develop iDto some
distinct and grander proportions with
our children's growth. In living our
lives over with them we kean ourSaIvas